


The first hero

by BoredomBeckons



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awesome Sarah Rogers, Family, Fluff, Heroes & Heroines, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Post-Recovery Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25920553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoredomBeckons/pseuds/BoredomBeckons
Summary: Captain America was a hero, a great one; but he wasn't Bucky's first hero.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. First meetings

Bucky didn't know what to do.

He had made a friend that day. A blonde boy who had been fighting with some bullies in the school yard who had been picking on another kid. Or more accurately being beaten up by some bullies instead of the other kid.

Steve, (that was his name) insisted that he was holding his own just fine before Bucky got there, but Bucky was pretty sure he was getting the snot kicked out of him.

Either way the kid was nice, once he stopped cussing Bucky out for interfering and for suggesting that he needed help in the first place. Once school let out, they had gone wandering through Brooklyn in the general direction of home. They'd shared a sandwich and talked about stuff. Bucky couldn't actually remember what they talked about. But they talked about lots of stuff.

He had felt powerful this morning.

Saving Steve from those bullies.

Fighting them, making them go away.

He had felt strong and in control and heroic.

He didn't feel that way now.

Not when his new friend was laying on the ground, convulsing, gasping for breath, and turning blue.

Bucky didn't know what to do.

He was just a kid; he wasn't prepared for this. He felt the panic rising up in his chest, felt the tears streaming down his face as he screamed for help. He didn't know what was happening and he didn't know what to do.

She arrived in a blur of motion.

Bucky wasn't even sure which direction she had come from. One moment he had been alone in the street with Steve flailing about on the floor in front of him and the next she was there, a blonde-haired blue-eyed angel descended from the heavens.

She was calm and spoke with a soothing voice, her movements careful and controlled as she lifted his new friend to sit upright, unbuttoned his shirt collar and began rubbing his chest and back, encouraging the boy to breathe deeply in through his nose and out through his mouth. As the minuets passed by, the short-clipped gasps Steve had been making evened out into slower more controlled breaths and the small form slumped forward in the woman's hold in relived exhaustion.

"Are you ok?"

It took a moment for Bucky to realise that the question was being directed at him and not the kid who had almost died. He opened his mouth to speak, not sure what he was going to say, and promptly burst into tears instead, shaking his head in a frantic 'No'.

The woman gave a sympathetic smile "You did good calling for help."

He continued to shake his head, in denial this time; he hadn't done good, he hadn't done anything, had hadn't known what to do other than scream.

Not like her; she had known what to do.

Steve was finally back to breathing normally although he still looked extremely pale and shaky. "Ma, this is Bucky" He introduced them. "Buck, this is my Ma."

"Sarah." The woman informed him with a smile, holding out her had to shake. Bucky's own hand was almost trembling as he reached for it, the true gravity of the situation slamming into him like a steam train. Wonder and amazement left him feeling dizzy.

He had just witnessed someone saving a life.

Steve almost died.

Steve was on the ground, shaking, and gasping, and unable to breathe, and Bucky had just stood there unable to help, and he was going to die, until Sarah had arrived.

Until she had shown up and fixed him. With nothing but her own two hands.

She had made him breathe again.

Someone was going to die and then they didn't because she stopped it.

She had the power to do that.

Years later the world would cheer for a soldier called Captain America.

They would shout and celebrate and chant his name.

They would call him a hero.

Bucky would be the first to agree.

But Captain America wouldn't be the first hero Bucky ever looked up to.

Wouldn't be the first he admired and respected.

That honour would always belong to Sarah Rogers.


	2. Lasting influence

Bucky didn't know what to do.

He was free.

Free of Hydra.

Free of his handlers.

Free of the mind control that had held him in its grip for so long.

Free of the Winter Soldier.

For the first time in decades he could do whatever he wanted but he didn't know what to do.

He had been invited to join the Avengers but the thought of doing that left him feeling cold.

He hated the cold.

He didn't want to fight any more. Not even if he was on the right side this time. Not even if he was doing so as a free man. He was so tired of fighting.

So tired of being hurt and of hurting others.

He didn't want to hurt. He wanted to help.

There had to be better ways to do that.

"Out of the way." Banner shouted as the team arrived back from their latest mission. Another giant robot. Apparently, the villains were now cooperating to mass produce them as a cost cutting measure. Every bad guy seemed to have one. "Everyone who isn't bleeding, out of the way."

Bucky felt a wave of guilt. He had been asked to join the team out there.

Asked to help. To fight.

But he couldn't.

If he started joining missions then he would be forced to keep joining and he didn't want that. He didn't want that life.

He could have helped though.

Could have been there. Taken some of the slack.

People got hurt.

His friends got hurt. He could have stopped that. He could have…No!

He didn't want to fight.

But he was useless right now.

They were fighting and he was just sitting here doing nothing. Not helping.

He didn't know what to do.

The sound of coughing had his feet moving before the decision consciously registered in his mind.

Clint was laid out on a gurney where he had been unloaded from the plane, Bruce was tending to Natasha a few metres away, some nasty looking cuts snaking across her stomach. All around them other people were running about dealing with their own emergencies.

Based on the amount of dust covering the archer it wasn't hard to guess why he was coughing. "Sit up." Bucky instructed firmly, gently guiding the man by his shoulders to do as asked, shifting him into a better position where his airways were more open. "Lean forward a bit. Take deep breaths, in out. Chough hard when you need to, spit out anything that comes up. Then breath again."

He grabbed a wad of paper towels for Clint to spit into, rubbing his back lightly with his metal hand as the archer's breaths began to steady and his body calmed a bit. Grabbing Wanda as she went past, he instructed her to grab him an oxygen mask from Bruce's bag of supplies and soon he was pressing the plastic seal over Clint's lips. "Deep breaths. In, out."

"Good." Bruce commented as he finished patching up Natasha and came over to check on things with Clint. "He's looking good. Were you trained as a field medic?"

Bucky shook his head, no. He had wanted to be, tried to push for that, but he was singled out as a sniper early on and that had been where he was most useful. "I used to help look after Steve when he was sick, his mom taught me how to do stuff. She was a nurse."

"Well with the rate this team manages to get injured I could certainly use the extra help patching them up" The other man chuckled "Especially since I am not technically that kind of doctor anyway. We could get you some real medical training. If you wanted?"

Bucky blinked dumbly at the scientist for a moment. The idea jarring him with how obvious it was, how had he never thought of it before?

He could be a medic.

He could heal people instead of hurt.

He could help the team without having to fight.

He felt himself nodding yes.

The frustration and aimlessness of his life just an hour ago was suddenly gone, replaced with a certainly and confidence he hadn't felt for years.

He knew what to do now.

He didn't have to be a fighter like Steve.

He could be a life saver like Sarah.


End file.
